Glenmaura National was built on a mountain. Besides requiring an impressive engineering feat to route and build the course, preserving the natural assets of the Pennsylvania mountainside yielded a course that is framed by massive trees, bisected by bubbling mountain brooks, puncutated with waterfalls, and offers some of the most dramatic off-site views in golf.

According to course designer Michael Hurzden, Ph.D., Glenmaura was the most difficult challenge a golf course designer could face. The sternest of the 7,000+ yards test is partially attributed to Larry Mize, PGA TOUR champion, who was a design consultant on the project.

The design crew started with a valley floor of mostly wetlands, middle slopes that had been badly strip-mined, and upper slopes that were solid granite. There was virtually no topsoil on the site. Protected environmental areas that marbled the site restricted movement and it took 100,000 cubic yard of rock blasting to create the golf course.

There are wetland areas in front of all the tee boxes. The fairways are wide, but they are lined by large rocks and trees, and the greens are average-sized and fast. Golf Digest rated this as the eighth "Best New Private Course" in America for 1995, and also rated it as the 11th "Best in State" course for 1997-98.